Perfect holiday reads for every kind of getaway

Our pick of the best books to take to the beach, to the pool or to read in the garden this Summer.

Take an enchanting and mysterious trip to the Cornish coast with the number one bestselling author of The House at Riverton.

June 1933, and the Edevane family's country house, Loeanneth, is polished and gleaming, ready for the much-anticipated Midsummer Eve party. But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever.

1066: an enormous date in English history, perhaps the biggest of them all – a year when great leaders fought for our throne, dragging the whole country into their bitter battles and wasting countless lives. Three men claimed the crown that year, but what of the three potential queens?

The perfect blend of history, fast-paced plot and sweeping romance, The Constant Queen is perfect for fans of Elizabeth Chadwick and Philippa Gregory.

The second book in Lucinda Riley's spellbinding series takes us from the turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea to the icy beauty of Norway.

Ally D'Aplièse is about to compete in one of the world's most perilous yacht races, when she hears the news of her adoptive father's sudden, mysterious death. Rushing back to meet her five sisters at their family home, she discovers that her father has left each of them a tantalising clue to their true heritage.

Explore the secrets of a beautiful country villa in this irresistible Italian bestseller.

Nineteenth-century Italy. A young woman arrives at a villa in the countryside outside Milan. Bianca, a gifted young watercolourist, has been commissioned to illustrate the plants in the magnificent grounds. But as Bianca's determination to unlock the secrets of the villa grows, she little notices the dangers that lie all around her.

A warm, wise and witty novel about finding the courage to carry on despite life not always turning out as expected, and a powerful testament to love and friendship as the constants in an ever-changing world.

Inseparable through university, Eva, Benedict, Sylvie and Lucien graduate into an exhilarating world on the brink of the new millennium.

As their twenties give way to their thirties, the four friends find their paths diverging as they struggle to navigate broken hearts and thwarted dreams. With every summer that passes, they try to remain as close as they once were - but this is far from easy. One friend's triumph coincides with another's disaster, one finds love as another loses it, one comes to their senses as another is changing their mind . . . And who knows where any of us will be in twenty summers' time?

Frances Hardinge's Victorian murder mystery is exactly the sort of gripping read you need when the in-flight movie selection just isn’t cutting it.

When Faith’s father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies.

As she is searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. The tree only grows healthy and bears fruit if you whisper a lie to it. The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the key to her father's murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide.

With any luck you won’t be facing off any tigers whilst out in the wilds but Rudyard Kipling's animal stories still make perfect campfire reading.

Children will be mesmerised by the tale of Mowgli, a boy raised by a pack of wolves in the Indian jungle, the tiger Shere Khan, Bagheera, the black panther, Baloo, the 'sleepy brown bear', and the python, Kaa. No film version has ever matched the wonder of Kipling’s exotic and exciting tales.

Who said you had to go further than your own back garden to make the most of the summer? There’s no better way to spend a sunny afternoon than with, one of America's most beloved authors, Judy Blume.

In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen and in love for the first time, three planes fell from the sky within three months, leaving a community reeling.